ACCS Trends in Community Children’s Services Surveys are tracking the impact of the Early Childhood National Quality Reforms as they roll out over 5 years.

ACCS Nationwide Research shows Community children’s services are delivering some of the highest quality services in Australia.
The 4th wave of the ACCS Trends in Community Children’s Services is now available. It shows that community services are leading the way in:
• providing quality education and care services for children and families
• demonstrating a commitment to continuous quality improvement and strong support for the National Quality Framework
• providing wages and conditions above award
The research showed that community children’s services are working more closely with the wider community and have noticed an increase in the number of children attending services who are in vulnerable circumstances.
Community children’s services are concerned that children who will most benefit from ECEC will have reduced access to ECEC as a result of the reduction in eligible subsidised hours for children of families who don’t meet the Child Care Subsidy activity test. The research showed that community children’s services believe that access to ECEC can be supported through the provision of fee relief, financial support and even free ECEC services.
Community children’s services are prioritising structural aspects of quality, providing services with higher than prescribed ratios of children to educators and employing educators with higher than prescribed qualifications.

At the mid-point in the five year process of improving the qualifications of educators and ratio of educators to children, and two years into the new early childhood assessment and rating system – the sector is successfully meeting requirements and staff reluctance to embrace change is reducing.